stimulated response

… Our brains don’t let piddling little facts get in the way of a good story, allowing lies to infect the mind with surprising ease. …
David Robeson
“Why are people so incredibly gullible?" BBC News, March 24, 2016

the mind filters
& forgets

the mind soundbites

“government is bad”

“all politicians are crooks”

“immigrants are stealing your jobs”

“thou shalt hate the un-namable party with all thine heart”

et cetera, et cetera, et cetera

it is a brain-game, blame-game,
flame-game
spiked with fear

repetition drowns & buries truth
every time

once the inferno starts,
who can stop it?

freud loosed the sexual
id

pavlov taught us how to leash
the desires of dogs

skinner stimulus-responsed
pigeons & rats & humans

now we know how to brain-wash
demographics
as efficiently as black-boards

we the people––
at the pinnacle of
rational creation––

diminished to
an unconscious cause
craving a dominating
effect